


The Last Hurrah

by ibelieveinturtles, VisiblePetrichor



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23300914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibelieveinturtles/pseuds/ibelieveinturtles, https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisiblePetrichor/pseuds/VisiblePetrichor
Summary: Written for the Marching Orders game on the Darcyverse Discord. Moodboard creators were given a prompt of Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter, and a pairing.Writers were given the moodboard and a second prompt.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 53
Kudos: 78
Collections: Marching Orders





	1. Summer Time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Marching Orders game on the Darcyverse Discord. Moodboard creators were given a prompt of Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter, and a pairing.
> 
> Writers were given the moodboard and a second prompt.


	2. The Last Hurrah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy’s finally finished college, Bucky’s taking one last vacation before joining the Army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, thank you VisiblePetrichor for such a pretty moodboard! I hope I've done it justice with my no powers au, post college fling.
> 
> I ended up slightly paraphrasing the second prompt, which was from Captain Marvel. "This is gonna get a little awkward, but I gotta ask."
> 
> Also, sorry this up late, I take all blame for not reading the instructions properly - I thought today was the deadline, not the reveal 😶  
> Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.

* * *

It was just after lunch when Bucky finally pulled into the motel. Slipping into an empty parking spot, he turned the engine off, reaching for his phone and wallet before climbing out of his car. It was good to stretch his legs after so many hours of driving. Leaning against the car, he unlocked his phone and scrolled through his contacts until he reached Steve’s number. As he waited for Steve to pick up, a door slammed somewhere above him, and high pitched giggling and delighted laughter rolled around the motel’s courtyard. Glancing up, Bucky watched a gaggle of young women stream down the stairs from the second floor, a variety of bags, towels, hats, buckets, spades, and a beach ball held in hands and slung over shoulders. They stashed their cargo into the back of an old yellow station wagon that didn’t look big enough to hold them all safely even though they all disappeared inside it. The engine roared into life but the car didn’t move. Instead, it sat there for several seconds before a woman with short blonde hair got back out and hustled up the stairs, yelling loudly as she did so.

“Darcy, what are you doing? Come on, everyone’s waiting for you!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” came the reply, and Bucky looked up to see a woman carrying a basket and wearing the shortest shorts he’d ever seen, pulling the door shut before hurrying towards the stairs. She had a phone tucked between her ear and her shoulder, speaking into it as she hurried down to join her friends.

“Hey, Carol - where are we going again? Jane’s gonna try and meet us there,” Short Shorts called out.

“Paradise Beach,” the blonde yelled, turning back to the car.

“Got it,” Short Shorts said. She finished the phone call, hopped into the back seat of the station wagon, and seconds later the car zoomed off, leaving silence in its wake.

“Bucky? Hello?”

Bucky became aware that his call had connected and Steve was trying to get his attention.

“Hey, yeah. I’m here,” he said.

“You got distracted by the Culver girls, didn’t you?” Steve said knowingly.

“The what?” Bucky said.

"Those girls your eyes were poppin' out over - they're from Culver College."

"What?" Bucky's eyes darted around the courtyard. "How did you-"

“Look up, Buck.”

Bucky looked up again.

“On your left.”

Steve was standing on the balcony opposite, waving at him and grinning. “They’re something else, aren’t they?”

Bucky grinned up at his best friend. “They got my attention.”

“Come on up,” Steve said. “I've been waiting for you.”

“On my way.” Bucky ended the call, leaning into the car to grab his backpack before striking out across the courtyard, taking the steps two at time.

“I was beginning to think you’d never get here,” Steve said, greeting Bucky with a hug. 

“Becca decided she wanted to come after all,” Bucky said, following Steve into the room. “I dropped her off at Nat’s place on the way. Where is everyone?"

“I'm glad Becca changed her mind,” Steve said. “Sam and Rhodey ran into a buddy of theirs earlier, Tony's probably trying to find better accommodation. He thinks this place is cheap-"

"It  _ is _ cheap," Bucky interjected. "We're all broke."

"I know," Steve nodded. "Not sure about anyone else but we're all meeting up at the bar later. You have time for lunch yet?”

Bucky shook his head. “Nah, figured I’d come straight here.”

Steve beamed. “Excellent. How do you feel about a trip to the beach? We’ll stop for fish and chips on the way.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow at Steve. “Any beach in particular you got in mind?”

“Maybe,” Steve said. “I hear Paradise is the place to be today."

* * *

Bucky leaned back in his chair, beer bottle dangling from his fingers as he watched the spectacle on the beach.

When they'd arrived at the beach with their fish and chips they'd been surprised to find Sam and Rhodey hanging out with the Culver women. Steve and Bucky didn't hesitate for a second when an invitation to join them was put forward.

Several hours later the party had doubled in size, there was a bonfire on the sand and music was blaring from the trunk of Quill's car.

Quill himself was currently engaged in a dance off with Short Shorts - Darcy, Bucky reminded himself - and losing. 

Laughter rolled through the audience as Quill tried to pull off a fancy move and landed on his ass instead. Darcy crowed her victory, almost joining Quill in the sand as she twirled around enthusiastically.

"Tiebreaker?" Quill asked but Darcy shook her head.

"Nope, I'm done. I need a drink!" she said, turning towards Bucky. "Hey, Buckster. Any of those left?" She nodded at the beer in his hand.

"Sure," Bucky said. He rose from his seat, leaning over to grab a bottle from the ice-filled plastic tub.

Twisting the top off, he passed it to Darcy, her fingers brushing his as she took it from him.

"Thanks, dude." She flopped into the seat next to him and took a long pull of her drink. They sat together in silence, watching the shenanigans on the beach.

“So," Darcy said as Quill begged for another dance-off partner, "this could get awkward, but I gotta ask…” She paused, watching Bucky out of the corner of her eye.

“Ask away,” he said, lifting his beer to his mouth.

“Firstly, are you single?”

He nodded and she grinned at him. “Secondly, how many of those have you had?” She nodded at his beer.

“Just this one,” he said. “I’m sposed to be driving these degenerates home later.”

Darcy snorted. “Like anyone’s leaving this beach tonight,” she said. “We’ve done this three times now, and each time we’ve slept here and not gone home til lunch time the next day. One time, we stayed two nights.”

Bucky took a good long look around him. The party was well and truly in full swing and he could easily believe what Darcy was telling him.

He sighed, and took another sip of his beer. “So, what I'm hearing is that I can have more of these?”

She shrugged. “I mean, you could. OR, we could leave these losers here and go find some fun of our own.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. “What exactly do you have in mind?”

Twisting in her seat, she tucked one leg underneath her and leaned towards him eagerly. “Well, about an hour or so inland there’s this mountain. It’s the only one for miles and miles, and I really wanna go see it but all these idiots wanna do is go to the beach."

Bucky blinked. "You wanna go see a mountain in the middle of the night? How many of those have  _ you _ had?" he asked, gesturing at her drink.

"Eh, not many. No, what I want is to see the sunrise on the flowers."

"Flowers?"

"Yes. The mountain is surrounded by these gorgeous pink flowers that glow in the sunrise." She paused thoughtfully. "Apparently. I can't say if that's true because I haven't seen it myself."

Bucky sighed, glancing over to where Steve was slow dancing with one of Darcy's friends. Sam had disappeared and Quill was attempting to tango with his last dance off partner. It didn't look like anyone would miss him. He turned his gaze back to Darcy, who was staring at him with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Just peachy. So, waddya say? Wanna take me for a ride?" And then she winked at him.

Did- did she just proposition him? After a moment of consideration, Bucky smiled. He hadn't expected anything when he agreed to come on this holiday but Darcy had had his full attention from the moment he saw her at the motel.

"I'll take you for a drive," he said, deliberately changing the word, "and we'll see where it goes from there."

* * *

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beach name is made up because as far as I could see from a 2 minute Google and a quick search of [this page,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beaches_in_the_United_States) there isn’t a Paradise Beach in America. 
> 
> My Tumblr, if you're interested, is   
> [ibelieveinturtles](http://ibelieveinturtles.tumblr.com/)


End file.
